(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com. It would help support my work, and keeps the website up. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this review!)

To be honest, I went into another rut this year about caring about video games. I think this time it’s because of the transitional period. Sony and Microsoft are pushing out stronger versions of their consoles, Nintendo is being tight-lipped about their new console, and there is this giant push for VR gaming and 4K gaming, two things that I don’t really care for or want to invest into. It also felt more like 2014 in terms of gaming, where there were good big-budget games, and a bunch of great indie games, but a lot of the tent-pole releases have been underwhelming. Luckily, for as questionable as they have been this year, Square Enix has produced one of my favorite games of 2016, Dragon Quest Builders. This title caught the curious eyes of gamers for being compared to the indie mega hit, Minecraft, in terms of the square-ish world, and how you have to build everything. Personally to me, I think it’s even better than Minecraft, and games that try to be like Minecraft in terms of crafting survival games. Let’s dive in.

This game has a unique setting. Well, in terms of Dragon Quest, it’s pretty unique. It takes place around the same time as the first game, but instead of the hero beating the evil Dragonlord, instead, the villain wins and plunges the world into darkness. Multiple lands go under the rule of large creatures. You play as the Master Builder, and your goal is to rebuild the land, save its people, and take down the baddies that plague the worlds around you. Unlike most crafting survival games, there is an end goal and a story. I know that may sound shocking, but you definitely get the Dragon Quest-style story with lore and a mystery as to what exactly happened in the past.

Dragon Quest Builders is an action RPG with crafting/survival elements. You will be dropped into four different worlds with different situations, from dealing with sick characters to regrouping a bunch of tough guys to get back their female leader. The worlds have their own set landscapes and levels that you must travel to get new items, defeat monsters, and to finish quests. After completing certain quests, you and your townsfolk will need to defend the town from a horde of monsters in a horde-mode-style action sequence, where you must use your weapons and your wits to defeat the monsters. After beating certain monsters in this sequence, you will be able to obtain portals to transport you to different parts of the land you are in, so you can find materials to upgrade your town, yourself, and to fight more iconic Dragon Quest monsters. Since this is a crafting/survival game, you will need to watch out for the durability of your weapons, armor, and your life. You will have a hunger meter by your health meter, and you don’t want that to hit the empty side of things. It will start depleting your health if you don’t take care of it. After beating a certain number of horde mode-style fights, you will then fight the boss of the world. Each boss will have its own attack patterns and weaknesses, like having a super invincible wall for the Golem fight, or a crossbow to take down the giant Hades Condor. After beating all four worlds, you will be able to take your crafting needs and take them to a mode where you can build whatever you want, and share with your friends online. Dragon Quest Builders is less Minecraft and more action RPG.

The game is beautiful. As usual with this franchise, the colors are vibrant, the memorable Akira Toriyama art style makes characters pop out, and the music is mostly tunes from the previous games. The writing is also classic Dragon Quest, with quirky dialogue and puns galore.

Like anything I review, I have some problems with the game. While I think the combat is satisfying, it definitely could have been deeper, with more combos and a dodge button. I also wish it could have done more with the survival aspects. Like, take out the hunger element. It becomes more of a chore when you get into the third world, where the only food thing you can get at the start are monster eggs from tough chimeras, and fishing for sardines, but you have to make the fishing pole by getting materials that are blocked off in an area guarded by a knight. Each time you start in a new area, you are stripped of your items and armor, and begin each area with only a club, a giant hammer, and that’s it. I got rather annoyed and stressed due to how uncommon the monster eggs are, and how they hide off an entire area behind a tough enemy that you need to get by, because there is a material on the other side that you need to make a fishing pole. Even then, some food items need other materials to make happen, and in the end, the game does slightly fall into that trap of feeling like babysitting your lead character. Granted, weapons, armor, and other things don’t break as often as bad survival games make them break, but still. In a way, I would have preferred if this game was just a fun simple action RPG with base-building. Not that I don’t get why they went with elements seen in Minecraft, but since this game does Minecraft better than Minecraft, you want to see it be better, and hopefully we can get a sequel out of this.

In the end, I loved Dragon Quest Builders. Yeah, the game might stress you out at times with the difficulty and survival elements, but it was a blast, and is easily one of my top five favorite games of the year. If you haven’t played this or bought it, and haven’t played it yet, I would highly recommend doing so. Just make sure you have a PlayStation 4, because from what I have heard and seen, the Vita version is obviously inferior to the main console version. If you love games like Minecraft, but have failed to find a game like it, then you should easily plop down asking price for this game. You get a lot of content for your dollars, and it’s a super fun game. I can’t wait to see what they can do with this sequel. Good job, Square Enix, you might have made everyone upset about forcing micro-transactions into Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, but at least you guys pushed out a great Minecraft clone.

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com. It would help support my work, and keeps the website up. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this review!)

When games that attempt to try something original, you want to be very supportive about it. However, you also have the conflict of the potential of this “unique” game not being good. So, do you support the game due to its unique gameplay, story, and setting, even if it is flawed? Well, in some ways, yes, but for me, I won’t give a unique game a free pass if there are legit flaws with the game. This is where Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst comes into play. The original game was a surprise to everyone, with its focus on fast-moving platforming, and less of a focus on combat and gunplay. Catalyst, a reboot of the series, attempts to refine the experience by being more about melee combat and improved platforming. Does it succeed? Well, let’s find out.

The game is a reboot/prequel to tell the origin story of Faith Conners, voiced by Faye Kingslee. She recently got released from prison, and rejoins a group of rebels that try to take down the big corporations that are trying to be in full control of the entire city and its people. Yeah, you can say I didn’t put too much focus onto the overall story, but when you see one “a free spirit taking down a giant conglomerate” story, you have seen them all.

If you played the previous game, then you should be fairly familiar with this new game in the franchise. It’s a first-person fast-paced platformer that relies heavily on platforming design inspired by those parkour specialists, where you use the surrounding buildings around you to traverse the city. The gameplay has been definitely improved upon, with the platforming feeling more fluid and easier to control. The levels don’t feel so clunky, and it felt great being on the move and knowing how to wall-run, wall-jump, and running across buildings to evade the bad guys. They took out gunplay in this game, and instead put more emphasis on the melee combat, the first game’s biggest weakness. It definitely feels more varied with the ability to punch, kick, push or kick enemies into a wall or into other enemies, and while there is one section where you can’t avoid enemies, you can pretty much go through some major areas without punching a guy. The game is now open-ended, with a huge world to explore, and multiple side-objectives to take part in, like racing challenges, deliveries, and hacking large signs. There is even this “multi-player” element, where you can compete with others and beat their time challenges. The game will take about eight or so hours to complete the main story, and a few more if you decide to take on the side challenges or keep playing the “multi-player” aspect of the game.

Graphically, this game is beautiful. It might be a sterile, mostly egg-white-looking world, but what were you expecting with a world of oppression and big business? The facial details and textures of everything are really pretty to look at. It actually looks as good as that ambitious, if forgettable Quantum Break. The music is once again atmospheric and techno, which fits into this bleak futuristic world into which you are placed. If you are curious about the composer, it’s the same individual that did the soundtrack for the first game, Solar Fields. The voice work is solid, but I would say it’s done well enough to show that the actors were trying to make this script work.

So, what is wrong with Catalyst? Well, unfortunately, a lot. First off, the story is forgettable. It’s yet another generic “screw the big companies that we must take down so we can be free” stories, and I’m sorry, but it has been played out so much in recent years, that it’s not very creative. I didn’t really care to remember anyone’s names, because the characters were boring. I know DICE probably doesn’t have the best scriptwriters, but they could have put more effort into the story. I also found the lack of gunplay not a bad idea, up until you reach an area that you can’t escape and have to fight a horde of enemies. This part is tedious, because they will throw in a few too many long-range enemies that you can’t deal with, due to the fact that they won’t let you shoot anyone. The melee combat is good and all, but the level itself is not equipped enough to give you a fair shake. It’s the one part of the game that goes against its own rules, set for no reason. It’s infuriating, and it doesn’t auto-save after each round. I wouldn’t mind all this, since I have played a lot of games with a bunch of mediocre sequences that no one in the testing group thought to speak up about, but since the story isn’t great, why should I complete the game? The game is also rather repetitive, with not a lot of variety in terms of platforming and challenges. I’m sure it would be challenging to make a huge variety of memorable challenges for a game all about platforming, but still. The world also feels fairly empty. It sort of makes sense, but I wish they had put more life into this stale, clean city. I also ran into some glitches, like soldiers shooting at walls, and yet the bullets would still hit me.

I really want to be supportive of Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst. It’s a solid game with some truly fun and satisfying platforming, but it’s weighed down by a boring story and sometimes tedious combat. I think it’s fair to say that if you haven’t played this game yet, give it a rent, and if you like it, get it for cheap. It’s good to always try something new, but sometimes, being different and unique isn’t enough.

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com. It would help support my work, and keeps the website up. I did get a review copy of this game, but got no financial compensation for reviewing the game. I got the code and nothing else. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this review!)

Here we are with the second game from PlayStation’s PLAY 2016. This is ABZU, an “experience” game done by the art director of Journey. This was easily one of the most anticipated games from the last couple of years. I think it’s obvious when you watch the trailers why people got so excited by this game from developer Giant Squid. Its bright colors, pleasing art style, and atmospheric gameplay looked like it was going to be this console generations’ Journey. So, does it reach the heights of Journey? Or does it sink to the bottom of the ocean? Let’s put on our snorkel and goggles, and find out.

You play as an individual in a swimming suit, flippers, and an interesting helmet as you wake up in essentially Water World, but without the multi-million dollar loss. Essentially, you need to find out where you are and what the heck is going on around you. There is actually a plot and an interesting twist, but I won’t divulge it here. Unlike a lot of these “experience” games, I was kept pretty invested with the overall story, which is something that rarely happens.

ABZU, if it wasn’t obvious from what I have said or from its trailers, is a game where you swim your way through an enchanted world of water and sea life. The main goal of doing so is to bring a world back to life while finding out where you came from. You do this by solving simple puzzles and going to shrines to bring more sea life back into the water world you are in. You can obtain little robotic helpers to help solve the simple puzzles, and you are able to swim around and grab onto large sea creatures. The overall game will not take you long to beat at about two hours, like most of the “experience” style games. It’s definitely a calming game to whip out every other day if you want some soothing tunes to listen to while you meditate or work.

ABZU is one of the prettiest games of 2016. It has an incredibly bright and colorful pallet, with dark blues to represent the deepest parts of the ocean. It easily captures the beauty and the unknown of the ocean world. The music is also calming and whimsical at points. This should be no surprise, since the composer, Austin Wintory, also composed the music for Journey, worked on The Order: 1886, Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded, The Banner Saga, and The Banner Saga 2. It’s one of the best soundtracks of the year.

Unfortunately, there are some problems with this experience. I found the controls to be clunky. The best part about Journey was that it was easy to pick up and play. The controls here just felt slightly awkward, which is a shame, since I recently got done with Uncharted 4, and that game had really solid swimming controls. While I did love my experience with ABZU, I do wish the overarching plot was more substantial, along with the gameplay. For example, they had the experience part down, but they forgot to make the predominant plot worth anything, like Bound. I do love this game, but I do wish there was more to the overall game than just being light on story experience.

Still, despite my criticisms with the game, I really enjoyed my time with ABZU. It’s another home-run in terms of the four PLAY 2016 games. It might be a tad too pricey for some at $20, and I can understand that you want to wait for a sale to pick it up, but if you love Journey,Bound, or any other kind of game that is calming and unique, then definitely pick ABZU up. Just make sure you know how to swim.

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com. It would help support my work, and keeps the website up. I did get a review copy of this game, but got no financial compensation for reviewing the game. I got the code and nothing else. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this review!)

When you think of real-time strategy games, you think of the PC market. Not that it’s a bad thing, but when I think of these types of games, I think of keyboard and mouse controls. For a while, the genre was stuck on PC, due to the controls on console controllers. That was, unless you worked around the controls. This has happened before with games like the ever-amazingPikmin franchise. Brutal Legend, while still clunky was also a valiant effort in terms of the RTS genre. That is why I was excited to see Dungeons II make it to the PlayStation 4. I contacted the developer, got a review copy, and found myself really enjoying this game on the PlayStation 4. Sure, there are a few clunky elements, but if you love games like the oldDungeon Keeper games, then you will fall head over heels for this game.

The main goal of Dungeon II is to go through different missions, building up your dungeon with loot, traps, guards, and special rooms, and then once you obtain enough to take over a small town, you venture out of your dungeon, and take down those goody-two-shoes that put you into the ground in the first place. You are essentially playing a real-time-strategy game mixed with a Sim City-style building mechanic, where you expand your dungeon with a floating evil hand. Throughout the game, you will gain little goblin creatures that will act as your servants as they break down different blocks to open up new rooms. So, you got servants, but what about minions that can take down the heroic individuals that want you taken down? Well, you get a vast array of monsters like orcs, snake people, and tech-savvy goblins, to name a few. You will need to manage your resources to build new rooms, traps, and ways to keep your army strong, drunk, and ready to beat down on some good guys! As you build up your rep and army, you will also be able to use magical spells, and gain special unit types that can give your army special abilities. The overall experience will take you about 15 addictive hours, and that’s not counting the multiplayer mode.

Dungeons II runs on the Unity engine, and it uses pretty cartoony graphics. Think of pre-World of Warcraft Blizzard games like Warcraft 3. It looks great with also a bit of visual reference to the Overlord games. It also has a great sense of humor with the narrator and the world they have built that is similar in tone to something like Shrek. The music is also very similar to something like Shrek or the Overlord series, with grand scale fantasy music that fits within the game’s quirky world.

If I had to complain about a few elements of the game, it’s easy to make it hard to pick out certain units to deploy first when you are attacking the enemy. What I usually do is simply send out the large group, and while controlling everything in the game is done well enough, knowing how limited you are with a controller, it can still be a tiny bit overwhelming and clunky to maneuver certain menus. I also experienced some slowdown when opening up huge areas in the dungeon.

Overall, Dungeons II is a great game, and a great port to the PlayStation 4. If you love strategy games, and are not a PC gamer kind of individual, then you should definitely pick this game up. It not only shows the great use of the Unity engine, but it’s also a great example alongsidePikmin and Prison Architect, in terms of how to port these games to consoles. If you are interested, you can get it for the PlayStation 4 and PC. Just sit back, and enjoy slapping some goblins!

Just my quick thoughts on the new iOS game Nintendo recently announced. Not sure if a running game was the best choice but I am keeping an eye out on Super Mario Run since Nintendo is known for making quality games no matter what

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com. It would help support my work, and keeps the website up. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this review!)

I got really excited for this year’s PlayStation PLAY 2016 line-up. Over the past couple of years, it always felt hit-or-miss in terms of the games. Some would be brand new titles, while the rest were more or less PC ports of indie games. This year though, they are all brand new, and quite frankly, some of the most anticipated games of this year for me. I am getting review copies for two of the games, and I’ll make sure to make note of which ones I do get in my reviews, but for now, I think it’s time we step into Double Fine Productions’ newest hit game, Headlander. This is easily one of the oddest games of 2016, where you play as a head inside a jet-propelled helmet. It was published by Adult Swim Games, and is the first of the four titles released for PLAY 2016. So then, does this Headlander land successfully as a game, or should they have maybe stayed in the vacuums of space?

Like I mentioned above, the story puts you in the, well, head of the last human in the galaxy. You start out in a ship called the Starcophagus, and then you are broken out by a helpful AI program, and are sent off to stop an evil robotic overlord that has essentially made everyone transfer their body and mind to robotic bodies. The most interesting part of this game’s setting and story is the tone. It still has a lot of that great humor Double Fine Productions is known for, but it’s also a bit more serious. It’s probably one of the more serious stories they have ever done. Don’t get me wrong, I laughed a lot at the dialogue and the voice work, but it’s interesting to see Double Fine do something a tiny bit more serious.

Headlander is a 2.5D metroidvania-style action game, where the main mechanic of the game and your main form of traversal is your flying head. You sound pretty weak by that description, but the game has a fun and unique mechanic. Any time you see a robot, good or bad, you can essentially vacuum off their head and land your head on their body. You will need to do this if you are going to survive the metallic locations that you are going to be floating around in. You will need to use different colored robots to open specific doors, and be able to fight back against other robots. You will even need to use your head-hacking ability to solve some side-quests, like finding a dog, or taking down multi-colored robots. The combat is very much like the gunplay you see in games like The Fall, where you use the right analog stick to aim your gun. Along with being able to steal robot bodies, you can also gain upgrades to move faster, be able to break through barriers, and slow down time to get through tricky situations. The overall game will take you about six hours if you want to get through the entire thing, but add on an hour or more if you decide to find all the upgrades. It’s a pretty solid game in terms of difficulty, and you will probably die a couple of times, due to how hectic the game can be when lasers are hitting the fan.

Graphically, Headlander captures that cheesy, funky sci-fi vibe that the 70s and part of the early 80s brought to the table, with a lot of disco-ish style choices thrown in throughout the game with the design of the robots and the color pallet. The game, for the most part, ran pretty smoothly, with slowdown happening only once during my time playing through the game. The humor of the game is like I have mentioned above, a bit more subdued their usual outings, but when the jokes do land or the writing gets full of quips and clever, it’s all that Double Fine Production humor that you are used to, and love. The voice cast provides a lot of great talent, including the main villain being voiced by Phil Proctor of Rugrats fame as Howard DeVille, the friendly AI ERL voiced by Jon Lipow, MAPPY was voiced by Invader Zim himself, Richard Horvitz, Nika Futterman, David Kaye, and Steve Blum to name a few. The music was also well done, capturing that vibe that you would get in films by John Carpenter or the recent Netflix series, Stranger Things.

Unfortunately, a few bad circuits did pop up with my playtime with Headlander. I found the game could have used a bit more variety in terms of gameplay. It doesn’t really kick in until the halfway point. It would have been nice to see more bosses that took advantage of the mechanics given to you. You literally get two major bosses, and that’s it. The action screen can also be a bit too hectic at times, with too much visual stimulation.

Headlander definitely starts the PLAY 2016 off strong, and is easily one of my favorite games from this year. It’s funny, creative, and overall fun to play. It’s worth the price of admission. If you love the quirky Double Fine Productions-style of gaming, or metroidvania-style games in general, then you will fit right in with the company’s newest game. I guess you can say this game will cause heads to roll with joy and laughter. Sorry about the pun.